Saturday, February 28, 2015

The job of a conductor on a New
York City subway train is a voyage into the heart of darkness.

by
Daniel Attila

I was
born in Hungary, from which I escaped in 1982 at age 18. I settled in New York
in 1984 with the intention of becoming an artist, but after nearly a decade of
struggle I realized I might never make it. In 1993 I enrolled in the City
University of New York, while I supported myself for four years as a conductor
on New York City subway trains. There can be only a few jobs that so quickly
introduce an immigrant to the realities of multi-racialism. Beneath the streets
of New York I have seen and done things that very few whites will — I hope —
ever see or do.

Conductors
operate the doors of trains, make announcements, give information to the
passengers, and oversee the safety of people on trains and platforms. Most of
the time they stay in a small compartment, or cab, in the middle car of the
train. There are many cities that operate subways with only a driver, but New
York City is a challenging place, where putting only one person on the train
would expose the system to violence and chaos……To Read More…..

Enrollment in Ohio’s expanded Medicaid program was 485,462 in December, 33 percent higher than expected. Gov. John Kasich’s Obamacare expansion took effect in January 2014, and it has been over budget ever since. Enrollment was at 492,121 last month, 34 percent higher than the Republican governor’s initial projection for this coming July

The Ohio Department of Medicaid never released a December caseload study, but a December eligibility and expenditures report pegged enrollment at 471,452. Caseload reports, which include revisions for previous months, have consistently shown large increases in previous months’ enrollment due to backdated eligibility.

For example, June enrollment in Kasich’s Obamacare expansion was initially reported as 285,553 before increasing in every subsequent caseload report. June enrollment was revised to 367,446 in ODM’s January caseload release.

July enrollment, first reported as 338,707, has been revised upward every month and was reported as 394,162 in the January caseload release. November enrollment jumped from 450,941 in the November report to 469,737 in January.

Ohio spent more than $2.1 billion in Obamacare money to pay for Medicaid expansion benefits through December. A $2.56 billion Ohio Controlling Board appropriation for the expansion was meant to last until July.

With monthly expenditures topping $300 million by the end of 2014, ODM will almost certainly exhaust its Controlling Board appropriation this month. The Kasich administration has not responded to Ohio Watchdog inquiries about its plans to pay for expansion through June.

Republican leaders in the Ohio House and Ohio Senate have signaled they would make no effort to overturn Kasich’s unilateral expansion of Medicaid to able-bodied, working-age adults with no dependent children.

In a House Finance and Appropriations Committee hearing Wednesday, Democrats expressed skepticism over Kasich’s recommendation that adults on Medicaid pay small premiums if their income exceeds 100 percent of the federal poverty line.

“My concern is it will turn less into a personal responsibility issue as more of an unnecessary burden, an unnecessary obligation,” Rep. Dan Ramos said.

Complaining that some Ohioans would forgo Medicaid coverage if required to pay a premium, Ramos asked, “Where’s the idea that this is a responsibility issue for these folks who have responsibilities, who have bills, who have a job?”

The Kasich administration has estimated “about half” of the Ohioans added to Medicaid under Obamacare have jobs.

“Without expansion, federal law requires individuals to have insurance for which they pay a premium on a monthly basis that, at low-income ranges around 100 percent, are about $20 a month,” Moody said.

“It seems fair to reflect that policy so as to not create a distinction between people at exactly the same income level when they make a choice to get coverage through the exchange versus coverage through Medicaid,” he added.

Kasich — who claims his Obamacare expansion has nothing to do with Obamacare — could address this issue by capping eligibility for Medicaid at 100 percent of poverty, but that would mean missing out on billions in new federal spending.

While traveling the country promoting a federal balanced budget

amendment, Kasich has vociferously defended his decision to add almost 500,000 people to a federally funded entitlement program. Kasich has even accused Republicans in states not embracing Obamacare of ignoring God’s will.

“Though it won’t save Ohio taxpayers from paying the growing check he has written, it would be nice if John Kasich admitted he was wrong on enrollment numbers and show an ounce of remorse for being so wrong,” Matt Mayer, president of free-market think tank Opportunity Ohio, said in an email to Ohio Watchdog.

“The same goes for the editorial boards who continue to shill for Medicaid expansion in spite of the cold, hard facts of what it is going to cost us,” Mayer added.

The state’s largest newspapers have all reported the Kasich administration’s Obamacare projections without skepticism while ignoring critics’ concerns about Medicaid expansion’s likely cost and outcomes.

First Pictures of Jihadi
John Before He Became Devout - Jihadi John
was once a fun-loving ten-year-old who adored The Simpsons, Playstation games
and eating chips, and dreamt of becoming a Premier League star, scoring goals
for Manchester United by the age of 30. So what happened? Islam.

Dylan Baddour: The Shamer
Claims He Was Shamed @DylanBaddour - After
Breitbart published my takedown of the Houston Chronicle’s sophomoric CAIR
press release, the thumb-sucking Houston Chronicle “journalist” Dylan Baddour
began receiving numerous tweets questioning his journalist integrity and skill.
He emailed me and wrote a subsequent piece for the Chronicle, which is behind a
paywall.What is interesting about Baddour’s
new piece in the Chronicle is his whining, self-pitying tone: Baddour strikes
the pose of the poor victim, besieged by what he no doubt thinks of as
ignorant, redneck, racist yahoos. He plays the victim just like his Muslim
friends and allies, and for the same reason: to deflect attention away from the
real victims — the victims of Sharia...Read the whole entry»

Norway arrests devout
Muslim preacher who praised Charlie Hebdo killers - Millions of Muslims all over
the world think this way — witness the demonstrations we saw in Pakistan, Iran,
Chechnya and elsewhere, with hundreds of thousands of Muslims demonstrating
against the Muhammad cartoons, not against the killing of the cartoonists. And
Norway and other Western countries are importing them in huge numbers, with no
thought to the future upheaval they are bringing upon their people.

Here’s the list of the
Extremists (Democrats) who are SKIPPING Netanyahu’s speech to Congress
- The usual suspects, Muslim Jew-haters and
extremists. It’s better without them. Back in 2006, I had the honor to be present in the Congress when the Israeli Prime
Minister (then Ehud Olmert) addressed the Congress. I was not a fan of his, but
it was thrilling. The moment was much bigger than who the PM was. The response
by the Congress was overwhelming. He was met with thunderous applause, except
for a small group of the long, ugly faces who sat there motionless, never
applauding, never smiling — silently hissing. Here’s how I described them:….

Rep. Trey Gowdy
(R-SC) blasted the Democrat Party for their blatant mishandling and breaking of
our immigration laws. When President Obama passed Executive Amnesty without
thought or care for what the law says he attacked the very foundation of our
nation… respect for the law.

“The thread that holds the tapestry of our country together is respect
for and adherence to the rule of law. The law is the greatest unifying and
equalizing force that we have in our culture…I’m going to say this for those who benefit from the president’s
polices. You may be willing to allow the end to justify the means in this case.
You may well like the fact that the president has abused prosecutorial
discretion and conferred benefits in an unprecedented way. You may benefit from
from the president’s failure to enforce the law.

Today, I will make you this promise: There will come a day where you
will cry out for the enforcement of the law. There will come a day where you
will long for the law to be the foundation of this Republic. So, you be careful
what you do with the law today. Because if you weaken it today, you weaken it,
forever. With that I would yield back.”

There
are two models for fighting terrorism. We can see the terrorists as an external
invading force that has to be destroyed or as an internal element in our
society to be managed.

In the War on Terror, Bush saw terrorists as an external force that had to be
fought while Obama sees them as an internal element to be managed. And while
both men signed off on some of the same tactics, their view of the conflict at
the big picture level was fundamentally different.

The differences express themselves in such things as detaining terrorists at
Guantanamo Bay or backing Islamist democracy. If Muslim terrorists are an alien
force, then detaining them without trial is no more of a problem than detaining
Nazi saboteurs was during WW2. And if Islamic terrorism is driven by alien
impulses, then it has nothing in common with us and attempting to accommodate
it cannot succeed.

Obama and the Europeans see Islamic terrorism as a social problem whose root
causes need to be resolved rather than defeated. It’s the old model used for
the radical left which was “fought” by mainstream parties adopting elements of
its program to compete with it… with disastrous results.

But the results of adopting elements of the Islamic program would be even
worse.

Obama blamed the Paris terror attacks on a failure to integrate. But Islamic
terrorism is an attempt to integrate Europe into Islam. The bombs and bullets,
like the Sharia patrols and the No-Go Zones, are statements by Muslims that
they will not be integrated into Europe. Europe must integrate with them.

Muslim terrorists reject the assumption that they are a domestic social
problem. To the Muslim born in France or the UK, who may even be a native
convert, the domestic social problem comes from Jews and Christians who refuse
to acknowledge the supremacy of Islam, from cartoonists who draw Mohammed and
from women who leave the house. Islamic terrorism is meant to integrate us into
the Dar-al-Islam.

If we are going to view Islamic terrorism as a domestic social problem, then we
might as well take a look at how Muslim countries deal with terrorism. They
rarely declare war against it, but when they do, they tend to engage in
ruthless mass slaughter. Jordan may have killed as many as 20,000 Palestinian
Arabs in its fight with the PLO. Assad’s father may have killed 40,000 Syrians
in Hama when putting down the Muslim Brotherhood. The death toll from the
current conflict hovers at around a quarter of a million.

In Muslim countries, terrorism actually is an internal element. It’s not an
alien force, but an ongoing momentum of expansion and conflict that predates
the airplane and the bomb. This is the tool that Mohammed and his successors
used to conquer sizable portions of the world. That’s why Muslim countries
don’t fight terrorism. They export it.

Jihad is a ticking time bomb that they dump on their enemies. Major Muslim
countries sponsor terrorist groups the way that we sponsor sports teams.
Sometimes they fight a terrorist group and then sponsor it and fight it again.
Sometimes they sponsor it and fight it at the same time. That’s the kind of
situation that gives counterterrorism experts headaches, but maintains a
bizarre kind of stability in the region.

A
Muslim country with a terrorist problem points the terrorists to another country.
That’s a major reason why Lebanon, Syria and Iraq are disaster areas. It’s also
why our Gulf allies keep funding the terrorists attacking America. Not only is
it the religiously devout thing to do and confers geopolitical advantages on
them, but it’s also the international equivalent of dumping your toxic waste
next door.

Exporting Islamic terrorism is something that Muslim countries can do more
easily than non-Muslim countries can. The Russians are about the only
non-Muslims to have managed to do it without getting hurt too badly. Our own
efforts in dabbling with foreign Muslim terrorists have been disastrous. Trying
to export domestic Muslim terrorists into another conflict would be a terrible
idea.

Nevertheless the West is doing just that in Syria, intentionally or
unintentionally. And the consequences will be quite serious because unlike the
Saudis, we can’t keep generating international conflicts for them to fight in
fast enough to prevent them from coming home and killing Americans.

Obama and the EU are trying to manage Islamic terrorists, but only Muslim
countries can do that. In the Muslim world, terrorist groups function as
unofficial militias, proxy armies that can be dispatched to fight their
enemies. But Islamic forces fight for an Islamic cause. Obama can claim that
America is one of the world’s largest Muslim countries, but he can’t call on
their Islamic allegiance to the United States.

The most crucial decision in our approach to Islamic terrorism is to decide
whether it represents a foreign or domestic element. If we treat Muslim
terrorists as a domestic force, then we will have to cater to them. The path of
appeasement will eventually lead to adopting some form of Islamic law even if
we do it under the guise of our existing legal system, such as prosecuting
blasphemy against Islam under hate crime laws. But as we attempt to manage
Islamic terrorism, the violence will increase.

Eventually we will discover that the only way to compete with Al Qaeda or ISIS
is to adopt elements of the Islamic program, the way that the West did with the
radical left. That is what most Muslim countries have already done. And if we
do it, then we will have defeated ourselves. That is why the approach advocated
by Obama and the European Union is bound to fail. The United States is not a
Muslim country and it cannot afford to manage terror the way that Muslim
countries do.

The Islamic terrorist is not a legitimate domestic element in America, the way
that he is in Pakistan or Syria, because he has no function here. The United
States is not in need of freelance fanatical militias following a foreign creed
that puts them at odds with Americans. If we attempt to cultivate Islamic
terrorists, then we will still end up becoming their first, or at best, second
choice of targets.

The West can only defeat Islamic terrorism by treating it as a foreign element;
an outside force that must be destroyed, rather than accommodated. Unlike
Islamic countries, we cannot accommodate it without destroying what we are. And
we cannot make use of it without destroying ourselves.

Europe still insists on seeing Islamic terrorism as a domestic social problem
and if its Muslim population continues to grow, then eventually it will be
correct. Islamic terrorism will cease to be a foreign threat to Europe and
become the means by which its non-Muslims are integrated into accepting Islamic
rule.

The United
States however is not an Islamic country in any sense of the word. It does not
face the same demographic danger as France. And it should not treat Islamic
terrorism as a domestic element.

To defeat an enemy, we have to view it as external to ourselves. When we accept
Islam as a domestic phenomenon to be grappled with, managed, moderated and
deradicalized; then we give up on the possibility of defeating it because an
internal problem that is part of us can never truly be defeated.

And that defeatism becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

When we treat the War on Terror like the War on Drugs or the War on Poverty,
then we accept the impossibility of winning. Instead we adapt to a European
mindset of managing the fallout from the latest batch of attacks. Terrorism
becomes no different than crime; a threat we try to live through without hope
of ever seeing it end. And that way lies a police state and numberless terror
attacks for it to police.

Declarations of war are important because they remind us that we have an
external enemy. Internal enemies may be a part of us, but external enemies are
not. We can defeat them without defeating ourselves. We are not doomed to fight
an endless struggle with Islam unless we make it a part of us.

Daniel
Greenfield is a New York City based writer and blogger and a Shillman
Journalism Fellow of the David Horowitz Freedom Center.

It is fairly
standard practice for companies to try to give their customers what they want,
even if it makes no sense. Perhaps the most notable recent
example was Johnson and Johnson, which bowed to pressure from
“consumers” (aka “environmentalist” and consumer activist groups that
supposedly represent consumers) to remove quaternium-15 from their No More
Tears baby shampoo.

Quaternium-15 is a
preservative which acts by slowly decomposing and giving off minute amounts of
formaldehyde—the active preservative. Johnson and Johnson had been under fire
for years from the always (or is it never?) accurate Environmental Working
Group to change a formula that had been used since 1953

Why? This is
“answered” by Heather White, the executive director of EWG: “We don’t know the
answer to that. But why is there a carcinogen in their shampoo? When in doubt,
take it out.”

Brilliant.

White, whose degree
from the University of Tennessee College of Law undoubtedly prepared her to
deal with complex toxicology issues, latched on to the OJ defense
mantra—science by rhyming. The result: J&J, rather than risk being labeled
as “baby killers,” caved.

In today’s “Irony
News,” J&Js new formula now contains three preservatives. One of
them, sodium benzoate, is described on
EWG’s own website as being responsible for ADHD and cancer in
children. The other two, ethylhexylglycerine
and phenoxyethanol
are both described by the group: “HIGH concerns: Irritation (skin, eyes, or
lungs), Occupational hazards; Other MODERATE concerns: Organ system toxicity
(non-reproductive).”

So, other than
maybe EWG’s bank account, it is reasonable to ask whether there were any health
benefits from this change. You decide.

Hershey is now
pandering to the anti-you-name-it crowd. They are going “all natural!”

ACSH’s Dr. Josh
Bloom points out a few fallacies in their new marketing approach: “First, they
are now doing away with the ghastly man-made chemical vanillin, which is used
to give vanilla its flavor and replacing it with vanilla extract. I wonder if
they realize that the principal chemical that gives vanilla extract its flavor
is… vanillin. Damn, that’s progress if I’ve ever seen it.”

Another meaningless
claim is the GMO-free nonsense. Among other things, this means that they will
not be using sugar that is derived from GM sugar beets. But, as we have
repeatedly noted,
the sugar (sucrose) from GM-sugar beets is completely indistinguishable
from the sugar (sucrose!) derived from any other source, such as non-GM
sugar beets, or sugar cane. Strike two.

Finally, regarding
the “natural is good” fallacy, consider a huge story,
also from this week. Thousands of dogs were killed by consuming food
contaminated by mycotoxins—a class of highly toxic, carcinogenic chemicals
which are produced by mold. These are natural.

Dr. Bloom says,
“The ‘Whole Foods marketing model’—nothing artificial, no preservatives, no
chemicals, etc. has certainly caught on. Too bad it’s a bunch of nonsense.
Except when it comes to suckering people into paying twice as much for the same
thing that just happens to have a green label on it.”

The real reason, as
you may have guessed by now, for the move by Hershey is clear as organic water.
From The Guardian,
“Hershey’s rival Nestle has recently announced they would remove artificial
ingredients from their products.” Yep—Hershey is
going green.

From the Buckeye InstituteThe latest Ohio by
the Numbers report (now available on The Buckeye Institute'swebsite) shows that while Ohio's labor market did not
see any remarkable changes in December, it did continue a healthy growth trend.
Private companies added another 6,300 Ohioans to their payrolls, while
governments lost 1,200 employees.Ohio's
unemployment rate continued to drop, falling from 5 percent to 4.8 percent.
Ohio's unemployment rate has now fallen by more than twice as much as the
national rate over the past year……Unfortunately, the decline in the
unemployment rate was not again concurrent with a rise in the labor force -- Ohio
gained 6,300 private sector and shed 1,200 total government jobs in December; Ohio's
unemployment rate dipped markedly to 4.8 percent; Ohio ranked 28th nationally
in private sector job growth since January 2010, increasing 8.4 percent
(11th-ranked Michigan increased 8.9 percent); Ohio currently ranks 47th
nationally for private sector job growth since January of 1990, increasing only
10.9 percent (top-ranked North Dakota grew 102.6 percent during the same time
span). For the full
report, please click here.For the full labor force update, click here.

On February 10, The
Buckeye Institute released a report reviewing the initial budget blueprint
released by Governor Kasich on February 2, 2015. The budget contains
some positive, and long overdue, pro-growth reforms such as large reductions in
the personal income tax. It also has many elements that will not boost Ohio's
growth as envisioned but will instead limit prosperity. These elements include
a doubling down by the Governor on previously rejected tax increases such as on
cigarettes, the oil and gas industry and the Commercial Activities Tax. They
also are violations of principles of sound tax policy as The Buckeye Institute
outlined in a recent report.The
following are several initial observations:………Overall state spending is
increasing faster than can be justified through either inflation or population
growth. The largest increase comes from moving the Medicaid expansion costs
back onto the General Revenue Fund (GRF) books. However, state-only GRF
spending also eclipses inflation.To
view the entire report, click here.

On Monday, February 23, The Buckeye Institute
released a new
report that explains how a change to federal Medicaid funding
rules may cause the Medicaid expansion program to become even more costly to
Ohio taxpayers.
In 2013, The Buckeye Institute warned that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) could disallow a tax scheme on which Ohio depends to fund the expansion. A more recent federal investigation of that same scheme in Pennsylvania has brought renewed scrutiny to the system and raised the likelihood of a ban. Buckeye's report finds that if
CMS issues such a rule change in 2016, Ohio's state budget will cumulatively
lose up to $1.3 billion in anticipated revenue by 2022. Worse, the expansion
program will become a cumulative net loss by 2026, and continue to impose
annual losses thereafter.

US “Right to Know” (US-RTK) is a lobby group opposed to genetic
modification (GM), and with the mandate to implement mandatory labeling of
foods produced using GM technology. The organization has requested public
records (such as emails) going back to 2012, from public university scientists
who are engaged in educating the public about GM technology.Dr. Kevin Folta, a professor and researcher at the
University of Florida, is one of the 14 scientists the group has targeted. The
following is from a conversation with Kevin regarding the RTK tactics, as well
as his thoughts on the role of the scientist and public perceptions about
genetic modification.

AWB: What are your
thoughts regarding the Right to Know demand

KF:They are using
important transparency mechanisms to intimidate scientists, and dissuade others
from participating in the discussion. It’s an enormously expensive endeavour.
Everybody has been completely cooperative and excited to provide this material.
I know I don’t have anything to hide – I’m happy to talk about it. It takes two
things to show that there’s corporate influence in my statements. One is you
have to show a connection. Two, you have to show that something was said that
would not have been said if it wasn’t for that influence. I think that’s where
US-RTK fails. Scientist opinions, and our discussions of the scholarly
literature, would be exactly the same if those companies never existed……To Read More…..

The gluten-free trend keeps growing. But is it all just hype? Does
gluten sensitivity really exist? Are more people being diagnosed with celiac
disease? Is modern wheat the problem or could it be genetic engineering? Here we unravel!This story was produced in collaboration with the Food &
Environment Reporting Network, a non-profit investigative journalism
organization.

A few years ago, when I began writing a book about grains and bread, the
first question I usually got when I mentioned the project was: “Why are so many
people having problems with wheat?” In many ways, the question encapsulated the
current anxiety around bread and wheat, which has gyrated from a source of
sustenance for humanity into a toxic pariah.

Wheat—and the main protein it contains, gluten—has been cited as a cause
of weight gain, “brain fog,” skin rashes, joint pain, headaches, tiredness,
allergies, gas, intestinal distress, irritable bowel syndrome, depression and,
in the case of celiac disease—where the immune system goes haywire and attacks
the body—even death. Yet wheat, which is found not only in bread and pasta, but
also in beer and numerous processed foods, makes up one-fifth of all food eaten
worldwide and is the ­number-one source of protein in developing countries.
Humans have been eating wheat for around 10,000 years, starting with domestication
of wild grasses in the Near East, at the dawn of agriculture.....To Read More....

Nevada
Assemblywoman Michele Fiore said recently that she will propose a "Right
to Try" bill in her state. But it's not the bill itself that gained
national attention. Instead, it was Fiore's statement that she believes cancer
is "a fungus" that can be cured by "flushing, let’s say,
saltwater, sodium carbonate" through the body……"If you have cancer,
which I believe is a fungus, and we can put a pic line into your body and we're
flushing with, say, salt water, sodium carbonate, through that line and
flushing out the fungus," she said. "These are some procedures that
are not FDA-approved in America that are very inexpensive,
cost-effective."….. Advocates usually note that the bills can help people
access promising new drugs before the FDA's approval process is complete.
Although the FDA does have a process to grant “compassionate use” exemptions to
allow patients to gain access to those promising treatments, "Right to
Try" supporters believe the process -- along with the FDA's drug approval
timeline -- is too bureaucratic…….. If her bill passes, Fiore argues,
alternative treatments could instead happen in Nevada. "Why not make it
the medical capital of the world, too?" she said…..To Read More….

My Take – The
problem with this account is its layered in such a way that fails to deal with
the primary issue – Your right to decide what medical treatments you should receive.It’s clear this woman’s character is
questionable. It’s clear her grasp of chemistry is miniscule.Its clear her solution for curing cancer is
right out of the Land of Ole Doc Oz based on a foundational concept that we
need to become purified - which is right out of the green religious “blood and
soil” concept of Nazi Germany.It’s
clear she and her cohorts are promoters of the idea it’s modern life that’s
causing cancer.It’s clear she and all
those who support such stuff fail to note that back when everyone was “pure”
from modern chemistry and industrialization most people didn’t live long enough
to contract cancer.Apparently chemical “purity”
is deadly.

The issue that really needs to be addressed is
lost in the side bars, and that is whether or not a terminally ill patient can
determine what treatments they receive even if those treatments aren’t approved
or have ever been tested.Even if the
promoters of that concept have questionable character or knowledge.That’s the issue…get past all the other
stuff.

Friday, February 27, 2015

It’s a safe bet that
for many whites, exposure to blacks and Hispanics comes in controlled doses.
Their positive attitudes toward “diversity” are shaped by isolated experiences
with small handfuls of non-whites, often in majority-white settings. Until some
years ago, my own life followed this pattern. I was a “colorblind conservative”
and liked Newt Gingrich and Jack Kemp. Although I was beginning to lose my
illusions, I thought all we needed to fix the race problem were free markets
and “better values.”

That was about to change. After law school, I accepted a job with the
civil division of a major metropolitan area’s legal office, which defends the
city against lawsuits. If you were hit by a police car, for example, and
decided to sue, we handled the case. Incoming lawyers were assigned to various
locations around the city, and I landed in the least-white part of town — 29
percent and falling.

There were mutterings about past lawyers who had refused this assignment
for “safety” reasons, but I thought of it as a gritty, world-expanding adventure.
Like a British explorer, I would venture out where others feared. How bad could
it be?......To Read More……

London, 25 February: The GWPF has, for a long time, warned policymakers and the
public that the leadership of the IPCC has been losing its scientific
objectivity and has been adopting environmentalism as a missionary cause. The
astonishing letter of resignation released yesterday by its outgoing
chairman, RK Pachauri, drops all pretence to the contrary and proves that our
concerns were valid. In it he states:

"For me the protection of Planet Earth, the survival of all species and
sustainability of our ecosystems is more than a mission. It is my religion and
my dharma."

The author of that statement has, for the past 13 years, been one of the world's
most influential government advisers in the area of energy and climate policy,
and one of the most visible spokespersons for climate science.

During this time we have witnessed a near-complete shutting down of open
scientific debate, militant hostility to any questioning of the claims or
assertions of the IPCC, and the zealous promulgation of costly and irrational
energy policies with inadequate regard for the balancing of human costs and
benefits.

It is clear that a missionary environmentalist mindset has been embedded at the
highest levels of the IPCC, and we reiterate our concerns that it has been
spreading throughout the organisation, with the full support of the leadership.

We call upon policymakers to begin asking some overdue questions about this
organisation upon which they rely so heavily. In particular, we are left to
wonder how Dr Pachauri's extreme biases have affected the work of the IPCC in
recent years and the advice it gives to governments.

The subject of
“equality” is the source of much political debate these days. Ever since the
founding era, free-market thinkers have argued for equality of opportunity in
the economic order. Equality, in other words, is a framework, not a result. In
modern terms the goal is a level playing field. Government should be a referee
that enforces property rights, laws, and contracts equally for all individuals. What the
free-market view means in policy terms is no (or few) tariffs for business, no
subsidies for farmers, and no racism written into law. Also, successful
businessmen will not be subject to special taxes or the seizure of property.

In America this
view of equality is enshrined in the Declaration of Independence (“all men are
created equal and are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable
rights”) and the Constitution (“imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout
the United States” and “equal protection of the laws”). Much of America’s
first century as a nation was devoted to ending slavery, extending voting
rights, and securing property and inheritance rights for women–fulfilling the
Founders’ goal of equal opportunity for all citizens…..To Read More……

"Secret Science": it's everywhere,
and nowhere, yet it rules our lives - This
week, GOP Senators and Representatives re-introduced the so-called "Secret
Science" bill, demanding federal agencies operate in the open, rather than
the status quo: regulations based on data hidden from both public and
scientific scrutiny. Read more.Bariatric surgery associated with
some improved pregnancy outcomes - In a
new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, bariatric surgery
was linked to less gestational diabetes and fewer larger than normal infants.
But not all changes were beneficial. Read more.

A new approach to cancer treatment? Makes much
sense. - There may be a tool for making better use of
the increasing number and variety of cancer treatment options. Pioneering
cancer centers look at treating the cancer according to the genetic mutation
that caused it, rather than the type. Read more.

GMO labeling laws will do more
harm than good - Earlier this year, a
GMO labeling bill was introduced in Minnesota that would mandate the labeling
of foods containing GM ingredients. College student Ronald Dixon hits the nail
on the head with arguments as to why this bill will do more harm than good. Read more.

Silicone on Trial: A Review - ACSH trustee Dr. Jack Fisher wrote an informative, but disturbing book
about the decades long Dow Corning silicone breast implant legal farce. Fisher,
a surgeon and historian, was in the middle of the debacle. Read Dr. Josh
Bloom's book review. Read more.

No link between labor
induction/augmentation and autism - The
prevalence of ASD seems to have increased significantly over the last 30 years.
A new study - confirming prior research - has failed to find evidence of any
role of labor induction/augmentation in the subsequent development of autism. Read more.

Why study implausible mental health modalities? - University of Toronto professor wants to study use of homeopathy for
ADHD, but many disagree. Nearly 100 scientists and physicians have signed a
letter questioning the validity of such a study. So do we. Read more.

Sauna use linked to better heart health - Finnish study (naturally!) finds a link between sauna use and better
heart health - more frequent and longer use associated with positive health outcomes.
Tempting - but no proof that saunas caused the improved results. Read more.

Can the risk of peanut allergy be
reduced in infancy? - Introducing
peanuts at an early age in those infants at high risk of developing peanut
allergy may reduce their risk of developing this allergy, finds a new study.
This research has led some to advocate for an immediate change in guidelines. Read more.

Atrazine back in the news, unfortunately,
thanks to EU's precaution - An article in today's NYTimes
business section references atrazine and trade problems that occur due to its
ban by the EU. We note that whatever the byzantine precautionary EU says, atrazine
is a safe, effective herbicide that has never harmed anyone. Read more.

How to misinform the public about antibiotics -The world is facing a scary scenario: Antibiotics are no longer working
because of bacterial resistance, and there's a big hole in the pipeline of new
drugs. In the NYTimes, Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel tosses in his two cents, which
is about what his op-ed is worth. Read more.

Vitamin D not a "miracle" supplement -Vitamin
D has been widely touted as a "miracle vitamin," having a myriad of
health effects beyond its basic function of enabling the absorption of calcium
from food. However, this is not the case, and a new commentary published in
JAMA points out that too much vitamin D can be detrimental to health. Read more.

Jane Brody's column spreads
poisonous nonsense about e-cigarettes -The New York Times' Jane Brody spreads the false
party line on e-cigarettes. She does take note that too many are smoking and
too many dying from smoking. Her solution? More money for Quitlines. Right. Read more.

About Me

Green is a mixture of blue and yellow. That is the only factual definition of green that will stand the test of time. After that; any other definition is a corruption of a perfectly nice color. I have been an exterminator for 35 years. I have served as a trustee on industry association boards representing pesticide and fertilizer applicators actively for almost 25 years. I believe that what we do isn't just a job; it's a mission! We are that thin gray line that mans the wall telling the world; "no one will harm you on my watch". I also believe that to be green is to be irrational, misanthropic and morally defective. They are the barbarians at the gate we have to stand against. Our greatest worry is those within who support and facilitate their misanthropic goals.